10 ms·

The Ouya works, it’s here, and it’s heading your way

203 points by richeyrw 14y ago

bluetidepro 14y ago
I'm really excited to get mine soon! Does anyone have any resources for people who want to dabble in creating a game for Ouya? Is it as basic as just making an HTML5 game with a wrapper of some sort? I would love to see some basic "how-to" type articles.
- allsystemsgo 14y ago
  I was under the impression that Ouya is running Android? So you'd write it in Java ideally. I may be wrong though.
  - bluetidepro 14y ago
    I think that actually does sound right, if I remember correctly. So, to modify my question, does anyone have any good tutorials on creating games with Java for Android? I'm just starting to get the hang of making HTML5 games, but it would be nice to see how I could translate that to work for Android devices.
    - jiggy2011 14y ago
      Last I checked, this looked like the way to do it. http://libgdx.badlogicgames.com/ http://libgdx.badlogicgames.com/ It apparently can build for iOS and the web (via GWT) too. Though I can't see any reason they couldn't start supporting some HTML5 games as well assuming it can support a browser.
  - sp3n 14y ago
    if you happen to know actionscript 3, you can also use adobe flash builder or flash develop - as adobe air can target android/ios devices just fine
  - JoshTriplett 14y ago
    You don't need to write Android apps in Java; you can write them in C, or in any language that can compile to native code and use a C API via FFI. In any case, for games, you probably want to start learning OpenGL ES.
    - xal 14y ago
      You may want to consider directly going to Unity
    - pjmlp 14y ago
      The issue with the NDK is that it is still a 2nd class citzen. The few Android APIs available, are wrappers around JNI calls. Java is the native language of the platform and Google does not seem willing to change that, even with the ongoing court issues.
  - mikec3k 14y ago
    Yes, it does run Android.
- kayoone 14y ago
  easiest would be to use something like unity or shiva
duked 14y ago
I didn't receive mine yet but as a backer I was pretty disappointed to learn only yesterday (in their last email) that I have to put my CC on file to download demos. I know some people may not have a problem with that but even on my Apple Store account I can download free apps without a CC. From their email: "You'll need a credit/debit card to download games. All games are still free to try. Your card will only be charged if you buy content you love. We do want valid payment information for everyone. This is to ensure that game developers can get paid when you love their game." The article mention gift card, but I just don't want to pay a gift card that I may not use just to download demos. Well I guess I'll use the hardware as a MAME box, and video player.
- shawnbaden 14y ago
  I'm in agreement with you on this. OUYA has proven to be very receptive to community feedback so it's good to voice concerns. It has a good chance of being reassessed.
  - duked 14y ago
    True, on the comment page of their kickstarter a lot of people expressed their concerns over the CC requirements. I really hope they will at least communicate on that particular issue soon
- Deezul 14y ago
  The CC is on file in order to streamline the purchase process when you decide to buy something. For OUYA to be a success there needs to be an appealing app ecosystem. That won't happen unless it gains developer interest and developers often invest in markets with a profit motive.
  - thejosh 14y ago
    That doesn't make sense. Having a credit card on file does not lead to a better app ecosystem.
    - 14y ago
danso 14y ago
According to the Kickstarter page, the Ouya was due out in March 2013: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-... I'm pretty sure I was one of the many naysayers who said the Ouya would never make that launch date. Hell, I once ordered underwear from a Kickstarter clothing outfit and that came at least three months late. I've supported several Kickstarters and none of them have delivered the physical goods within two months of their promise (I've even had one delayed by a year). The Ouya is late by a couple of weeks, if even that. Congrats to Ouya for meeting their goal, here's hoping that their system is a success.
- eropple 14y ago
  The reports of system problems are already rolling in, though. In particular it seems that the controller has perceptible input lag; that's an immediate killer for pretty much any gaming-related product. They might have shipped, but it remains to be seen if they shipped something that's any good.
  - durin42 14y ago
    Got any source for that controller input lag? That does sound like a bummer.
    - deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]
    - stuartc 14y ago
      "Everything isn't perfect; I noticed a slight bit of lag on the controller, and I can't point to a single game that would make one need to buy a system at launch." From the linked article.
  - jonny_eh 14y ago
    I don't know where this is coming from. I can't perceive any lag in my unit when playing all sorts of games. I've hooked up an xbox 360 controller and there's no difference. There's no more input lag on an ouya than on an xbox 360 as far as I can tell. There are a couple games built using an older version of the ouya Unity plugin that introduced some lag, so that might explain it. Full disclosure: I am an employee of OUYA. But any developer that has had a dev unit for the past 3 months can chime in. We never got this feedback until a couple people in the press brought it up.
xradionut 14y ago
Is it wrong of me that I wouldn't mind turning one into a Linux system and not run Android or play games? (After all this is Hacker News...)
- eropple 14y ago
  An ODROID would probably be better for your purposes. http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/main.php http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/main.php
  - xradionut 14y ago
    Considering features sets, an Odroid wouldn't be as cost effective.
- abraininavat 14y ago
  Why would you do that? The days of yearning for a small hardware platform on which one can install Linux are over. You can fit Linux on a computer that would fit in your wallet.
  - xradionut 14y ago
    Why not? That's the question to ask. :)
  - DanBC 14y ago
    > Why would you do that? There's a tradition of putting operating systems on anything. FreeBSD runs on cameras and game consoles and all sorts of devices that did not intend the user to install an OS. So it's just a fun gimmicky project.
  - Bjartr 14y ago
    Because it's there[1] [1] http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/20040405/badger.shtml http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/20040405/badger.shtml
- nazgulnarsil 14y ago
Cushman 14y ago
Not a comment on the Ouya specifically, but we live in an odd moment in computing history when many of us carry powerful computers with us everywhere we go, but connecting them to our existing peripherals is difficult enough that we'd rather just buy another with the right plug. I wonder how long this will last.
- noonespecial 14y ago
  Connectors and physical controllers remain expensive and difficult to make. "Computers" just fall to the base price of etching a circuit board. This is the new normal. The connector is the valuable part.
  - ChuckMcM 14y ago
    This captures it. The cost to add the transistors to put an ARM CPU in silicon is < the cost of the metals in the USB and HDMI connector you use to talk to it. I gave a talk on the Internet of Things where I tried to communicate this point clearly, for more and more applications the marginal cost to add a computer is nearly 0, the marginal cost to add a network is about $0.35, so a lot of things that wouldn't have had networks or computers in them before suddenly do. Back when Sun Micro was trying to get everyone in the Java group to write up patents on anything they could think of, James Gosling in what was a great comment on the process wrote up one for Java inside a light switch. He reasoned it was the most ridiculous patent ever since a light switch from Home Depot was $1.50 and there was no amount of "coolness" you could add with Java that would merit building a light switch with its own processor. What he didn't count on was that the cost of the computer that could run Java would drop below the cost to make a mechanical switch.
    - davidb_ 14y ago
      > The cost to add the transistors to put an ARM CPU in silicon is < the cost of the metals in the USB and HDMI connector you use to talk to it. This statement amazes me. It may be true, but it is very counterintuitive to my experience. A micro USB connector is about $0.35/unit (for quantites of 1500). An HDMI connector is about $0.50/unit (similar quantites). These prices are from Digikey. So, in larger quantites from larger distributors, you could certainly get cheaper prices. The cheapest ARM processor (cortex M0) is about $0.78/unit on Digikey. I understand your point is about licensing the ARM design and integrating it into your silicon, but most low cost devices I've seen have just been PCBs that integrate these off the shelf components. I would have to imagine the cost of hiring engineers to do the VLSI design/integration, the cost of licensing the ARM CPU, and then the cost of fabricating/testing your silicon would have to exceed integration on a PCB. So, I would then assume that the processor, while certainly cheap, is still a very substantial portion of the cost of the device. But, I have no data on the cost of ARM licenses to back that up. You're definitely right in asserting the trend is cheaper and cheaper processors, but I don't think we've arrived at the "processors are so cheap they're basically free" world quite yet.
tenpoundhammer 14y ago
I give Ouya 5 million space points for the 'make' option. That's the most incredible part of this whole system. Develop on the box you play on... It's just revolutionary. If this thing can catch it might just revolutionize and destroy the gaming industry as we know it.
- Macsenour 14y ago
  Commodore 64? Develop on it for it. So mebbe the revolution started without you... in the 80's. :) I agree that we'll see a lot more games developed in garages and on weekends. And I think that's where a lot of the unique games come from. But this won't destroy the gaming industry at all. It will help usher out folks who shouldn't be in the industry in the first place.
  - podperson 14y ago
    Any early computer. Heck, UNIX was developed so the bored team members could play games on an old minicomputer.
    - ghotli 14y ago
      You got a link to back that one up?
      - podperson 14y ago
        No I read it in a book years ago. (Perhaps "Hackers", by Steven Levy.) The story, as I recall, was that Ken Thompson was working at Bell Labs, bored, and had an old PDP-7 (?) that had no software. He was bored and wanted something to run space war on, but to get there he needed an OS, compiler, etc.
        mitchellhislop 14y ago
        You are right on that citation. Awesome, awesome book that really opened my eyes (as a 24 year old) as to just how far things had come.
mikec3k 14y ago
I can't wait to receive my Ouya, as a $99 backer.
BryantD 14y ago
That's an encouraging review. I am not a backer, because I'm cynical, but that's quite promising. This paragraph got me thinking: "I can't point to a single game that would make one need to buy a system at launch. Much of the value of the OUYA hardware lies in what you can do with it, from media functions to creating your own games. It's very possible that a breakout game is coming, and we just don't know what is it yet, but at this point it's hard to point to one single game that will get you to buy a unit." For a traditional console, that would be a huge issue. (Ask Nintendo about the Wii U launch.) Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo spend a lot of cash making sure there will be excellent launch titles. Traditional wisdom is that launch titles drive console sales. On the other hand, the current generation of smartphones didn't have big launch titles. Possibly the landscape has changed. On the third hand, smartphones do other things than play games. On the fourth hand, sounds like the Ouya might be a strong media console, depending on how slick that XBMC integration is. C.f. the number of people who bought Playstation 3s as a Blu-ray player. In any case, I'm impressed that hardware is shipping and I was wrong to think it wouldn't. I'd keep an eye on those lag reports, though; I would think Penny Arcade and Polygon are smart enough to think about video lag as a possibility.
codezero 14y ago
The opened up controller looks kind of haggard. The controller in the image here looks more abused than ny 6 year old XBox 360 controller, hopefully their production models are more durable than this one looks.
IheartApplesDix 14y ago
You can lead a horse to metered water but you can't make him put a quarter in the booth.
drawkbox 14y ago
Very excited to get mine. It is funny though as I look at OUYA, Steambox, even GameCube of old and other console cubes appear and can't help that Jobs almost called it too early with the Mac Cube a bit before it's time and not targeting the right area of the house yet while GameCube did around the same time (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Mac_G4_Cube http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Mac_G4_Cube - probably based on NeXTCube). Hopefully the game controller for Apple TV isn't really an April Fool's Joke as AppleTV is close to being the next big console possibly.
- mcdoh 14y ago
  I think Roku is closer than AppleTV. It has "wiimote" that can be turned sideways as a gamepad or used as a motion capture remote. Not to mention they actually let people develop for the platform, they just need to offer something other than that terrible Basic clone, BrightScript.
just2n 14y ago
I was initially thinking the Ouya would be cool. But then I actually thought about the console space and realized that what was true of my younger years is no longer the case. In particular, a NES was significantly different than a Windows or Unix workstation. The console was an entirely different platform/ecosystem, and in a time where they were reasonably complex by comparison other computing operating systems. These days, we're literally running the same software we run on everything else, but in a little box that has an audio/video output and a port for a controller. And then when I realized that, I immediately realized that the console is mostly dead. The only case where this isn't true is where performance metrics are consistent. This is why development on platforms like a PS3 or 360 result in shorter dev cycles and higher quality results: the hardware is all the same. But that matters when you're writing software that isn't shielded from the system, so with Java, that's a non factor, making Ouya nothing special. I believe the next Playstation, Xbox, and Nintendo will all have their merits -- high-end hardware that is consistent for years, which will allow developers to rapidly build games without having to concern themselves with the lowest common denominator (it's ridiculous to see software designed to run on a 512MB 1 core machine performing horribly on a 24GB machine with 6 cores, 2 GPUs, and 3GB of GPU memory because it was decided by someone that progressive enhancement of features would be too expensive a development cost, or for those high-end features to be completely non-optimized). For me, I am summarily unimpressed and not excited. For me, this is packaging Java in yet-another-box that I have to buy. Why can't I just download an app and play Ouya games on my PC? That's a -1 for Ouya and a +1 for what Valve is doing with Steam.
- andybak 14y ago
  I'm struggling to understand what you ar saying here to the point where I wonder if you've missed the biggest factor for the Ouya which is this. It's that it's part of a (potentially and to a degree actually) huge Android ecosystem with the same games running on phones, tablets, consoles, Smart TVs, media centers, mini-PCs and netbooks. Doesn't that change things?
  - jiggy2011 14y ago
    The important part is the controller and potentially a market of games for it. While it sounds nice to run the same game on a console and a touchscreen I don't see that working too well in reality.
novaleaf 14y ago
fyi, i submitted a game for ouya, and the system is not ready. 1) the dev sdk is not yet complete. Try figuring out how to bring up the in-game menu, or "pause" using the controller. Seems logical that's what the middle button should be for, but there isn't any sort of guidance on this in the api. 2) my game is developed using unity, and runs on android (it's in the google play store). We get my game building using the official Ouya plugin, but without dev hardware, our ability to test is extremely limited, but we do our best to plug in an xbox controller and make sure everythign works. .... so we submit the game to ouya, and they reject it citing "the game takes turns every one second after starting, and the music keeps playing after exiting the game"..... since my game doesn't actually have "turns", and we use Unity as an engine so don't actually do anything special for exiting, I emailed them back asking for clarification ... and got no response. rant: they name the controllers buttons OUYA. wtf seriously? they couldn't use ABXY?
JVIDEL 14y ago
Personally I would have totally buyed the ouya 2 years ago when the average Android phone was still too weak to play anything more demanding than angry birds without choking on it. But today, miracast+N4+X360 controller and you have something that mops the floor with the ouya, game over. But the biggest irony is that I would really dig this thing if it were a portable: touchscreen controls suck, there's no way around it. The xperia play was a fiasco and the Vita is going to die any day now. There are portable consoles running android but spec-wise they are all pathetic, and the quality of some is just subpar. If the ouya was a GBASP with a Tegra3 it would be the best portable console ever made, and would blow any phone out of the water when it comes to gaming.
dannowatts 14y ago
i didn't back this project, but it's really exciting to see that they have shipped the ouya, on time. much props to the ouya team and all involved!

203 points by richeyrw 14y ago

I'm really excited to get mine soon! Does anyone have any resources for people who want to dabble in creating a game for Ouya? Is it as basic as just making an HTML5 game with a wrapper of some sort? I would love to see some basic "how-to" type articles.

allsystemsgo 14y ago
I was under the impression that Ouya is running Android? So you'd write it in Java ideally. I may be wrong though.
- bluetidepro 14y ago
  I think that actually does sound right, if I remember correctly. So, to modify my question, does anyone have any good tutorials on creating games with Java for Android? I'm just starting to get the hang of making HTML5 games, but it would be nice to see how I could translate that to work for Android devices.
  - jiggy2011 14y ago
    Last I checked, this looked like the way to do it. http://libgdx.badlogicgames.com/ http://libgdx.badlogicgames.com/ It apparently can build for iOS and the web (via GWT) too. Though I can't see any reason they couldn't start supporting some HTML5 games as well assuming it can support a browser.
- sp3n 14y ago
  if you happen to know actionscript 3, you can also use adobe flash builder or flash develop - as adobe air can target android/ios devices just fine
- JoshTriplett 14y ago
  You don't need to write Android apps in Java; you can write them in C, or in any language that can compile to native code and use a C API via FFI. In any case, for games, you probably want to start learning OpenGL ES.
  - xal 14y ago
    You may want to consider directly going to Unity
  - pjmlp 14y ago
    The issue with the NDK is that it is still a 2nd class citzen. The few Android APIs available, are wrappers around JNI calls. Java is the native language of the platform and Google does not seem willing to change that, even with the ongoing court issues.
- mikec3k 14y ago
  Yes, it does run Android.
kayoone 14y ago
easiest would be to use something like unity or shiva

duked 14y ago

I didn't receive mine yet but as a backer I was pretty disappointed to learn only yesterday (in their last email) that I have to put my CC on file to download demos. I know some people may not have a problem with that but even on my Apple Store account I can download free apps without a CC. From their email: "You'll need a credit/debit card to download games. All games are still free to try. Your card will only be charged if you buy content you love. We do want valid payment information for everyone. This is to ensure that game developers can get paid when you love their game." The article mention gift card, but I just don't want to pay a gift card that I may not use just to download demos. Well I guess I'll use the hardware as a MAME box, and video player.

shawnbaden 14y ago
I'm in agreement with you on this. OUYA has proven to be very receptive to community feedback so it's good to voice concerns. It has a good chance of being reassessed.
- duked 14y ago
  True, on the comment page of their kickstarter a lot of people expressed their concerns over the CC requirements. I really hope they will at least communicate on that particular issue soon
Deezul 14y ago
The CC is on file in order to streamline the purchase process when you decide to buy something. For OUYA to be a success there needs to be an appealing app ecosystem. That won't happen unless it gains developer interest and developers often invest in markets with a profit motive.
- thejosh 14y ago
  That doesn't make sense. Having a credit card on file does not lead to a better app ecosystem.
  - 14y ago

danso 14y ago

According to the Kickstarter page, the Ouya was due out in March 2013: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-... I'm pretty sure I was one of the many naysayers who said the Ouya would never make that launch date. Hell, I once ordered underwear from a Kickstarter clothing outfit and that came at least three months late. I've supported several Kickstarters and none of them have delivered the physical goods within two months of their promise (I've even had one delayed by a year). The Ouya is late by a couple of weeks, if even that. Congrats to Ouya for meeting their goal, here's hoping that their system is a success.

eropple 14y ago
The reports of system problems are already rolling in, though. In particular it seems that the controller has perceptible input lag; that's an immediate killer for pretty much any gaming-related product. They might have shipped, but it remains to be seen if they shipped something that's any good.
- durin42 14y ago
  Got any source for that controller input lag? That does sound like a bummer.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - stuartc 14y ago
    "Everything isn't perfect; I noticed a slight bit of lag on the controller, and I can't point to a single game that would make one need to buy a system at launch." From the linked article.
- jonny_eh 14y ago
  I don't know where this is coming from. I can't perceive any lag in my unit when playing all sorts of games. I've hooked up an xbox 360 controller and there's no difference. There's no more input lag on an ouya than on an xbox 360 as far as I can tell. There are a couple games built using an older version of the ouya Unity plugin that introduced some lag, so that might explain it. Full disclosure: I am an employee of OUYA. But any developer that has had a dev unit for the past 3 months can chime in. We never got this feedback until a couple people in the press brought it up.

xradionut 14y ago

Is it wrong of me that I wouldn't mind turning one into a Linux system and not run Android or play games? (After all this is Hacker News...)

eropple 14y ago
An ODROID would probably be better for your purposes. http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/main.php http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/main.php
- xradionut 14y ago
  Considering features sets, an Odroid wouldn't be as cost effective.
abraininavat 14y ago
Why would you do that? The days of yearning for a small hardware platform on which one can install Linux are over. You can fit Linux on a computer that would fit in your wallet.
- xradionut 14y ago
  Why not? That's the question to ask. :)
- DanBC 14y ago
  > Why would you do that? There's a tradition of putting operating systems on anything. FreeBSD runs on cameras and game consoles and all sorts of devices that did not intend the user to install an OS. So it's just a fun gimmicky project.
- Bjartr 14y ago
  Because it's there[1] [1] http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/20040405/badger.shtml http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/20040405/badger.shtml
nazgulnarsil 14y ago

Cushman 14y ago

Not a comment on the Ouya specifically, but we live in an odd moment in computing history when many of us carry powerful computers with us everywhere we go, but connecting them to our existing peripherals is difficult enough that we'd rather just buy another with the right plug. I wonder how long this will last.

noonespecial 14y ago
Connectors and physical controllers remain expensive and difficult to make. "Computers" just fall to the base price of etching a circuit board. This is the new normal. The connector is the valuable part.
- ChuckMcM 14y ago
  This captures it. The cost to add the transistors to put an ARM CPU in silicon is < the cost of the metals in the USB and HDMI connector you use to talk to it. I gave a talk on the Internet of Things where I tried to communicate this point clearly, for more and more applications the marginal cost to add a computer is nearly 0, the marginal cost to add a network is about $0.35, so a lot of things that wouldn't have had networks or computers in them before suddenly do. Back when Sun Micro was trying to get everyone in the Java group to write up patents on anything they could think of, James Gosling in what was a great comment on the process wrote up one for Java inside a light switch. He reasoned it was the most ridiculous patent ever since a light switch from Home Depot was $1.50 and there was no amount of "coolness" you could add with Java that would merit building a light switch with its own processor. What he didn't count on was that the cost of the computer that could run Java would drop below the cost to make a mechanical switch.
  - davidb_ 14y ago
    > The cost to add the transistors to put an ARM CPU in silicon is < the cost of the metals in the USB and HDMI connector you use to talk to it. This statement amazes me. It may be true, but it is very counterintuitive to my experience. A micro USB connector is about $0.35/unit (for quantites of 1500). An HDMI connector is about $0.50/unit (similar quantites). These prices are from Digikey. So, in larger quantites from larger distributors, you could certainly get cheaper prices. The cheapest ARM processor (cortex M0) is about $0.78/unit on Digikey. I understand your point is about licensing the ARM design and integrating it into your silicon, but most low cost devices I've seen have just been PCBs that integrate these off the shelf components. I would have to imagine the cost of hiring engineers to do the VLSI design/integration, the cost of licensing the ARM CPU, and then the cost of fabricating/testing your silicon would have to exceed integration on a PCB. So, I would then assume that the processor, while certainly cheap, is still a very substantial portion of the cost of the device. But, I have no data on the cost of ARM licenses to back that up. You're definitely right in asserting the trend is cheaper and cheaper processors, but I don't think we've arrived at the "processors are so cheap they're basically free" world quite yet.

tenpoundhammer 14y ago

I give Ouya 5 million space points for the 'make' option. That's the most incredible part of this whole system. Develop on the box you play on... It's just revolutionary. If this thing can catch it might just revolutionize and destroy the gaming industry as we know it.

Macsenour 14y ago
Commodore 64? Develop on it for it. So mebbe the revolution started without you... in the 80's. :) I agree that we'll see a lot more games developed in garages and on weekends. And I think that's where a lot of the unique games come from. But this won't destroy the gaming industry at all. It will help usher out folks who shouldn't be in the industry in the first place.
- podperson 14y ago
  Any early computer. Heck, UNIX was developed so the bored team members could play games on an old minicomputer.
  - ghotli 14y ago
    You got a link to back that one up?
    - podperson 14y ago
      No I read it in a book years ago. (Perhaps "Hackers", by Steven Levy.) The story, as I recall, was that Ken Thompson was working at Bell Labs, bored, and had an old PDP-7 (?) that had no software. He was bored and wanted something to run space war on, but to get there he needed an OS, compiler, etc.
      - mitchellhislop 14y ago
        You are right on that citation. Awesome, awesome book that really opened my eyes (as a 24 year old) as to just how far things had come.

mikec3k 14y ago

I can't wait to receive my Ouya, as a $99 backer.

BryantD 14y ago

That's an encouraging review. I am not a backer, because I'm cynical, but that's quite promising. This paragraph got me thinking: "I can't point to a single game that would make one need to buy a system at launch. Much of the value of the OUYA hardware lies in what you can do with it, from media functions to creating your own games. It's very possible that a breakout game is coming, and we just don't know what is it yet, but at this point it's hard to point to one single game that will get you to buy a unit." For a traditional console, that would be a huge issue. (Ask Nintendo about the Wii U launch.) Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo spend a lot of cash making sure there will be excellent launch titles. Traditional wisdom is that launch titles drive console sales. On the other hand, the current generation of smartphones didn't have big launch titles. Possibly the landscape has changed. On the third hand, smartphones do other things than play games. On the fourth hand, sounds like the Ouya might be a strong media console, depending on how slick that XBMC integration is. C.f. the number of people who bought Playstation 3s as a Blu-ray player. In any case, I'm impressed that hardware is shipping and I was wrong to think it wouldn't. I'd keep an eye on those lag reports, though; I would think Penny Arcade and Polygon are smart enough to think about video lag as a possibility.

codezero 14y ago

The opened up controller looks kind of haggard. The controller in the image here looks more abused than ny 6 year old XBox 360 controller, hopefully their production models are more durable than this one looks.

IheartApplesDix 14y ago

You can lead a horse to metered water but you can't make him put a quarter in the booth.

drawkbox 14y ago

Very excited to get mine. It is funny though as I look at OUYA, Steambox, even GameCube of old and other console cubes appear and can't help that Jobs almost called it too early with the Mac Cube a bit before it's time and not targeting the right area of the house yet while GameCube did around the same time (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Mac_G4_Cube http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Mac_G4_Cube - probably based on NeXTCube). Hopefully the game controller for Apple TV isn't really an April Fool's Joke as AppleTV is close to being the next big console possibly.

mcdoh 14y ago
I think Roku is closer than AppleTV. It has "wiimote" that can be turned sideways as a gamepad or used as a motion capture remote. Not to mention they actually let people develop for the platform, they just need to offer something other than that terrible Basic clone, BrightScript.

just2n 14y ago

I was initially thinking the Ouya would be cool. But then I actually thought about the console space and realized that what was true of my younger years is no longer the case. In particular, a NES was significantly different than a Windows or Unix workstation. The console was an entirely different platform/ecosystem, and in a time where they were reasonably complex by comparison other computing operating systems. These days, we're literally running the same software we run on everything else, but in a little box that has an audio/video output and a port for a controller. And then when I realized that, I immediately realized that the console is mostly dead. The only case where this isn't true is where performance metrics are consistent. This is why development on platforms like a PS3 or 360 result in shorter dev cycles and higher quality results: the hardware is all the same. But that matters when you're writing software that isn't shielded from the system, so with Java, that's a non factor, making Ouya nothing special. I believe the next Playstation, Xbox, and Nintendo will all have their merits -- high-end hardware that is consistent for years, which will allow developers to rapidly build games without having to concern themselves with the lowest common denominator (it's ridiculous to see software designed to run on a 512MB 1 core machine performing horribly on a 24GB machine with 6 cores, 2 GPUs, and 3GB of GPU memory because it was decided by someone that progressive enhancement of features would be too expensive a development cost, or for those high-end features to be completely non-optimized). For me, I am summarily unimpressed and not excited. For me, this is packaging Java in yet-another-box that I have to buy. Why can't I just download an app and play Ouya games on my PC? That's a -1 for Ouya and a +1 for what Valve is doing with Steam.

andybak 14y ago
I'm struggling to understand what you ar saying here to the point where I wonder if you've missed the biggest factor for the Ouya which is this. It's that it's part of a (potentially and to a degree actually) huge Android ecosystem with the same games running on phones, tablets, consoles, Smart TVs, media centers, mini-PCs and netbooks. Doesn't that change things?
- jiggy2011 14y ago
  The important part is the controller and potentially a market of games for it. While it sounds nice to run the same game on a console and a touchscreen I don't see that working too well in reality.

novaleaf 14y ago

fyi, i submitted a game for ouya, and the system is not ready. 1) the dev sdk is not yet complete. Try figuring out how to bring up the in-game menu, or "pause" using the controller. Seems logical that's what the middle button should be for, but there isn't any sort of guidance on this in the api. 2) my game is developed using unity, and runs on android (it's in the google play store). We get my game building using the official Ouya plugin, but without dev hardware, our ability to test is extremely limited, but we do our best to plug in an xbox controller and make sure everythign works. .... so we submit the game to ouya, and they reject it citing "the game takes turns every one second after starting, and the music keeps playing after exiting the game"..... since my game doesn't actually have "turns", and we use Unity as an engine so don't actually do anything special for exiting, I emailed them back asking for clarification ... and got no response. rant: they name the controllers buttons OUYA. wtf seriously? they couldn't use ABXY?

JVIDEL 14y ago

Personally I would have totally buyed the ouya 2 years ago when the average Android phone was still too weak to play anything more demanding than angry birds without choking on it. But today, miracast+N4+X360 controller and you have something that mops the floor with the ouya, game over. But the biggest irony is that I would really dig this thing if it were a portable: touchscreen controls suck, there's no way around it. The xperia play was a fiasco and the Vita is going to die any day now. There are portable consoles running android but spec-wise they are all pathetic, and the quality of some is just subpar. If the ouya was a GBASP with a Tegra3 it would be the best portable console ever made, and would blow any phone out of the water when it comes to gaming.

dannowatts 14y ago

i didn't back this project, but it's really exciting to see that they have shipped the ouya, on time. much props to the ouya team and all involved!